Leaked FBI report: Drug sellers practice harm reduction
Before selling their product, “narcotics dealers,” as the report pejoratively described them, checked it with fentanyl test strips
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
The recognition that people who sell drugs can play a crucial role in reducing the harms caused by drug criminalization is not limited to reformers, syringe service workers and researchers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also aware—although the evidence of this comes from a leaked intelligence report, rather than any public FBI acknowledgment. In an April 9, 2019 “Situational Information Report” found on a hacked server sharing intelligence with North Texas law enforcement—among the documents published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets—the FBI’s Denver Division recorded that drug sellers were practicing common harm reduction measures amid the arrival of a fentanyl-adulterated supply, dubbed “Sleepy Dope,” to Pueblo, Colorado.
